Meet the Next Ted Cruz: Basically Every GOP Candidate

Meet the Next Ted Cruz: Basically Every GOP Candidate

All you other Ted Cruzes are just imitating, so won't the real Ted Cruz please stand up, please stand up, please stand up?

Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images

The only people who think Ted Cruz came off well in the shutdown war are the millions who voted for Tea Party candidates from 2010 on, and the scores who want to run for Congress. Ben Terris talks to a few of them.

"To call me the next Ted Cruz," says Chris McDaniel, who announced last week that he would challenge Thad Cochran of Mississippi, the second-most-senior Republican in the Senate. "I would certainly consider that a compliment." ... To McDaniel, the shutdown was not a mistake; the Republican leadership "lacks passion," and he's ready to come to D.C. to "do everything he can to put a stake in the heart of Obamacare."

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Conveniently enough, the Club for Growth is just out with an ad that backs McDaniel and makes no mention of Cochran. (It refers, blandly, to career politicians.)

Even after the "fight against Obamacare" is basically over, it's a top-line resume item from the Virginia governor's race to Mississippi to [insert name of congressional district/state]. I mean, look at how the "moderate" candidate in the special Alabama congressional election goes after the "Tea Party" candidate, Dean Young.

A fine, clean hit, one that starts with an NRA endorsement and goes after Young specifically for fleecing Christians.